Heath said:
Here is a graphic footage of a prison gang war. Even if you are an innocent man doing hard time in prison and .... you are not a gang member or anything like that. This is what you would have to deal with everyday. There are always murderous fights going on in prison wheter it is gang related or has nothing to do with gangs. This is why it is very important to not get in bar fights or illegal like that in the normal everyday world. Always avoid fights. Not worth it. Why be locked up and have to deal with this everyday when you could be coming home from work, relaxing have a couple cold beers, meet women, go to Church and Bible study groups, meet good friends that do not try to get you in trouble or themselves in trouble.
Caution : Not suitable for children, Wait until the kids are put to bed to be able to view this in your privacy.
PRISON RIOT: Gangs go to war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxConiz8_U&search=hand to hand fighting
That is why it is very important to stay away from bad people, bad situations, bad areas and stay away from fights so you do not have to deal with this everyday in prison.
Update: This incidient in the video tape happened in 2000 and was an extremely dangerous situation.
Guards Kill Prisoner In Brawl at Pelican Bay
12 other inmates shot in knife-wielding melee
- Bill Wallace, Pamela J. Podger, Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, February 24, 2000
Crescent City, Del Norte County -- Guards at Pelican Bay State Prison fatally shot one inmate and wounded 12 others yesterday to quell a riot involving scores of black and Latino inmates armed with crudely made knives and other weapons.
The brawl, involving about 200 inmates, erupted in the exercise yard of the maximum-security prison that holds some of California's most dangerous and incorrigible felons. It was the most violent riot in the prison's 10-year history, the state Department of Corrections reported. ``It was black and Hispanic inmates fighting,'' said prison spokesman Lt. Ben Grundy. ``We've had racial incidents in the past.''
The shootings were the most serious at a state prison since a new policy was adopted last year strictly limiting the circumstances under which guards can open fire.
The confrontation began about 9:30 a.m. in Facility B, a prison exercise yard surrounded by the eight cell blocks at the 3,384-bed prison. It is not known what caused the violence.
``We don't know how this riot began or what precipitated the incident,'' said Margot Bach, a California Department of Corrections spokeswoman.
One inmate was pronounced dead yesterday at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City. Authorities declined to release his name. A second inmate remained in critical condition suffering from what Corrections Department director Cal Terhune called ``a serious shotgun wound.'' Two others remained in intensive care.
Nineteen inmates received injuries at the hands of other inmates during the fight, and prison officials said last night that they may yet find injured inmates in their cells.
No guards or other staff members were injured in the melee.
Prison officials said there were 15 to 20 guards in the area when the violence erupted. They issued a ``stand-down'' order, which the inmates ignored, and tried to separate the inmates. Guards then used teargas and pepper spray, followed by rubber and wooden bullets, before firing two dozen .223-caliber rounds from their prison-issue Ruger Mini-14 rifles.
``Progressive force was used,'' Grundy said. ``It was used unsparingly.''
Despite the use of guns and several canisters of teargas, it still took 120 guards about 30 minutes to restore order.
``They did a great job,'' Terhune said. ``It was a tough situation and they took care of it.''
Prison officials said guards found about 50 prison-made weapons in the exercise yard after the fight.
PRISON IN LOCKDOWN STATUS
The prison will remain locked down until further notice, with inmates confined to their cells and the institution under heightened security, Terhune said.
Terhune will oversee an investigation by a ``deadly force'' investigative team. Yesterday, he defended the decision to open fire on the brawling inmates.
``All the ingredients were there'' to justify such force, he said.
Pelican Bay sits on 270 acres of land about 10 miles south of the Oregon border. It is an imposing gray hulk devoid of trees and surrounded by razor wire and gun towers. Its eight cell blocks radiate from a three-acre exercise yard like the spokes of a wheel.
The prison was supposed to house 2,280 inmates when it opened in 1989. It currently is overcrowded by more than 1,000 prisoners. Many of its inmates were involved in violence at other prisons.
Yesterday's melee came just one week after prison officials allowed inmates to use the exercise yard for the first time since an August 31. One guard suffered a fractured cheekbone in that skirmish, but no inmate was injured.
Steve Fama of the Prison Law Office, a San Rafael organization that represents inmates, said the overcrowded conditions at Pelican Bay ``probably had a lot to do with (yesterday's) riot.''
``Problems between prisoners, including race-based problems, are unfortunately a part of prison life. When you have too many prisoners in a facility that wasn't designed for that amount, I think it heightens the tensions,'' he said.
California's prisons reported the most inmate deaths from gunfire of any correctional system in the nation in the late 1980s and early '90s. More than 39 inmates have been killed in prison shootings since 1988, and the large number of shootings led to a change in prison firearms policies that was adopted as a state regulation late last year.
Under the new rules, guards are allowed to fire at inmates only to defend a prison employee from death or great bodily injury, to prevent an escape or to stop a riot.
PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON
Security Housing Unit: Four facilities for the most dangerous or disruptive inmates Level 4 Housing Units: Includes medical facilities, chapel, dining halls and cells. Facility B: Riot took place in this yard.
-- Location: Set on 270 acres 7.4 miles from Crescent City, Del Norte County. -- Warden: Robert L. Ayers. -- Staff: 938 uniformed personnel, 460 support staff. -- Opened: December 1989. -- Cost: $217.5 million. -- Purpose: Pelican Bay is known as one of the most modernistic and secure penal facilities in the country. Built to isolate and punish the state's most-troublesome convicts, the high-tech complex includes a security housing unit for the most incorrigible and dangerous inmates. -- Inmate Population: Designed to accommodate 2,280 maximum-security inmates in solitary confinement, the facility holds 3,384. The security housing unit was designed to hold 1,056 and now holds more than 1,251.
RACIAL BREAKDOWN
Latino: 41.8%
White: 22.2%
Black: 30.4%
Other: 5.6%